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Wednesday, 21 December 2011

My 2011 crafty resolutions didn't really work out as I got distracted by too many other new exciting projects to find the time to finish the two blankets and a quilt that I'd rather foolishly set myself the challenge of finishing this year. I reviewed a book about quilting and knitted a few blanket squares but that was about it!

So for 2012 I've decided to pick one big project to work on alongside all the other crafty projects that come and go throughout the year: knitting a sky blanket.

I read about Lea Redmond's awesome Sky Scarf knitting project earlier this year and basically I fell head over heels in love with the idea and couldn't get it out of my head. I loved the idea of knitting a row every day based on the colour of the sky, and of ending up with a quirky knitted record of a year's worth of weather.

I thought about following her instructions to make my own scarf, but I didn't really want to knit a long scarf I knew I'd probably never use... so I decided to make a blanket instead.

I'll be knitting a square a day for almost a year (360 days in total, giving me a nice even number of squares to sew into a blanket), using two strands of double knit yarn for each square.

Lea's scarf pattern uses the genius idea of mixing five basic sky colours (light blue, bright blue, light grey, dark grey and white) to represent the sky for that day... so a bright sunny day with a few fluffy clouds would be bright blue and white, and a day of heavy snow would be all white. I've already been enjoying looking at the sky each day and working out what yarn colours I'd choose for it.

My blanket will end up being very thick and cosy, perfect for snuggling on the sofa on winter evenings. You can see my test squares here. The squares will look very different to the stripes of Lea's scarf, but hopefully it will still look nice and even if it ends up being the ugliest blanket in the world I will probably still love it madly and spend hours waffling on at people about the idea behind it (honestly I have bored so many people by telling them about this project, and I've not even started it yet!).

It took me a while to find a range that had a good selection of sky blues and cloudy greys, but I eventually settled on Stylecraft Special DK which comes in a massive range of colours and (added bonus) is pretty cheap, so I could afford to buy extra balls of it to cover all weather eventualities during the year. All the leftover yarn at the end of the year will go into my stash for other blankets, etc. and get used up eventually.

In case you're interested the colours I'm using are (clockwise from top left) "Silver", "Aster", "Cloud Blue", "White", and "Grey".

I will (of course) be posting pics of the blanket's progress during the year - I hope you'll enjoy following it as it grows :)

15
comments:

Hey I came across your project via Helen @on twitter and it's awesome! Such a good idea! I've been thinking of making a postcard calendar and writing on 1 good thing about my day every day. I can then look back and see the awesomeness in the year gone by. Your sky blanket has given me the kick up the arse I needed to actually do it!

Fab idea! I have been hand crafting Christmas. Two daughters in their 30s are now knitting blankets and crocheting squares thanks to late Grandma's influence. Hurrah for crafting! Hope to hear more of the project in 2012!

I have never heard of the sky scarf project before .. sounds like a great idea.I've used Stylecraft Special DK on my last 3 blankets .. it's really soft and lovely to use.Looking forward to seeing the progress on your blanket :)

Great choice of colours! I have to thank you as I read this and got so excited, conceptual knitting - how cool! I have joined and will really love taking part and seeing all the other scarves grow too..can't wait to see your blanket. xx

Okay wasn't sure what you were going on about so had a little look and its GENIUS!! My husband is always going on about the weather and is threaterning to start a rain log next year as he swears it rains here every day! This would be a great idea to make for him for xmas next year and then maybe he'd see how many blue sky days we have! Thanks for the idea and I hope you have a very merry christmasPene x

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm so excited to start this project :)

Smith and Bailey - that sounds like such a positive project! I've read on other blogs the idea of keeping a "done" list in a notebook instead of just writing "to do" lists, so you see just how much stuff you actually achieve over a week/month/year etc.

Hydrangea Girl - yes, I'm expecting quite a lot of grey to feature in my blanket! It will be really interesting to see just how many blue skies we get in a year though...

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